Deckers Brands delays meeting, deadline for director nominations

Deckers Brands, the Goleta maker of Ugg boots, set a Sept. 15 deadline for the nomination of new directors after coming under fire from activist investors who demanded the sale of the company.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 5 also pushed the annual meeting back until December. The company told the SEC on Aug. 31 that Angel Martinez would also be stepping down as chairman of the board of directors, replaced by John Gibbons. Martinez, the company’s former CEO, will continue to serve as a director.

Activist investor Marcato Capital Management purchased a 6 percent stake in the footwear and apparel company in February and penned an open letter in June threatening changes to board of directors if the company did not agree to put itself up for sale. Red Mountain Capital Partners, which said it owned a little more than 3 percent of Deckers stock, also wrote to the company’s leadership in March to request that it explore options for a sale or merger.

The company announced in April that it had hired an investment banker and that it was considering a sale or merger as part of its strategic review process. It had outlined a $100 million plan to improve operating profits by its fiscal year 2020, including a $10 million net decrease in sales, general and administrative expenses and a $2 billion increase in sales.